State · 44–27 BCE
From Caesar to Augustus
Rome (Italy)
On 15 March 44 BCE, about 60 senators led by Brutus and Cassius stabbed Julius Caesar, recently named dictator for life, in the Curia of Pompey in Rome. His heir Octavian joined Mark Antony and Lepidus in the Second Triumvirate, then defeated Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BCE; in 27 BCE the Senate gave him the name Augustus.
Why it mattered
Augustus became Rome's first emperor, ending the Republic and founding the Principate, a system of one-man rule behind republican forms that opened a long era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana.
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